1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a method for testing 1394 controllers, and more particularly to a method for testing 1394 controllers in a multiple system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within the field of computer application nowadays, information is commonly shared or transmitted between two apparatus, such like two hosts, a host and a peripheral, or two peripherals. The larger the file size is, the more time for transmission is required. It takes a long time to transmit a file with large size by a lower transmission standard and brings users inconvenience to use.
It is therefore urgent to require a transmission standard supporting high-speed data transmission. As far as the transmission standard in common use is concerned, IEEE 1394 provides an advanced solution for the high-speed transmission and becomes highly valued. The IEEE 1394 standard is also known as the ILINK or FIREWIRE standard.
After finishing the design of the interface card with a 1394 controller, the interface card has to be put to the general test and the load flow test to ensure its performance. The test methods presently used are performed under the driver structure in Microsoft's WINDOWS System. The packet of the 1394 standard is generated by the test method and received by the interface card to ensure its normalization.
However, the drawback of the test method is that it is hard to debug during the load flow test. The load flow test is to send out a large amount of packets to the interface card in a very short time for testing the stability of the interface card. The driver under the WINDOWS operating system needs an additional debug program, SoftICE of NuMega company for example, to check the values inside the computer memory and the buffer. It is hard to perform debugging for the test worker since the memory address in the Microsoft's WINDOWS System is a virtual address, which requires a transformation for mapping onto the physical address. It is also hard to trace the wrong packet while problem causing. Besides, it is not easy to monitor the testing status at every moment due to the difficulties of observing the buffer and memory and the inconvenience of changing the buffer setting.